What Is a Private Blog Network?
A Private Blog Network (PBN) is essentially a group or ‘network’ of private domains and websites that you fully control. They are called private because a ‘bot blocker’ plugin software is used to block these domains from being seen by site crawlers such as Majestic and Ahrefs etc. All of these private ‘Tier 1’ domains would be used to effectively link to a target website or ‘money site’ that you are looking to boost in the Serps for particular keywords. These private blog networks consist of expired or auction domains and care must be taken in selecting them for purchase, as they should contain high-quality topical related ‘Tier 2’ backlinks already in place. This domain selection is a skill in itself and we’ll be covering how to select domains for building you PBN later in a separate training. These domains are purchased for the sole purpose of creating the network, but can also be useful when building websites if they contain high quality backlinks in the same topical niche.
So in summery, a PBN is a private network of blogs which are made private and then used to manually pass key authority directly to a target website. More than one of these blogs pointing to a target website are referred to as a ‘network’, hence the name ‘Private Blog Network’
Here’s a basic diagram of the principle
Next we’ll go over PBN’s and we will discuss how they can help.
How and Why Does It Work?
One of the top search engine ranking factors has always been the quantity ‘CF’ or Citation Flow and quality ‘TF’ or Trust Flow of the backlinks that your domain/website has. When you own a website that is listed in Googles Serp’s (search engine results pages) over time, you’re website will generally expected to get a lot of different sorts of quality backlinks if you have a fair amount of exposure. The various types and quality of backlinks that you are able to get will determine how high your website will be able to rank in the search engines.
PBN’s are essentially a shortcut in order to get faster results than waiting for organic backlinks. Instead of waiting for quality websites to link back to your website, you build out an entire network of quality domains and link back to your main website that you are trying to get ranking higher. This, in turn, boosts the number of backlinks you have and the quality of them.
I should mention at this point, that there is a wide variety of backlinks which make up this mix. What I mean is a healthy website should have a mixture of different links pointing to it from sources like, directory sites, web 2.0’s, wiki posts, comments, blogs, authority sites, and social media channels. These should also be within certain ratios, so building a whole pile of one type of links will not cut the mustard.
Using a PBN is a preferred method to a lot of marketers because not only does it end up saving a lot of time, but it can put the marketers in complete control over the links to their website. Linking to the money-site from the PBN should only be started once the initial on-page optimization and foundational social media channel links and directory links are indexed. This alone is invaluable because it places them in full control over various factors that can affect the quality and impact of the backlinks including its anchor text, where the link is placed on the website, and more.
IMPORTANT -> links to a target site that come from pbns should come from sites with unique nameservers and/or IP’s. Mainly the A and C class IP numbers should all be different. We’ll explain this more on the How to Set Up a PBN Network page.
Using EBN or Easy Blog Networks is a great service to host all your domains. They provide free SSLs, CMS and plugin maintenance, as well as unique IP hosting for all sites within your networks. All at a reasonable bulk price point.
Click here to check out their service.
Reasons to Use a PBN:
1. Complete Control.
The biggest reason you are going to want to consider using a PBN is that it places you in complete control over the links to your website. With a PBN, you are going to be able to do everything from dictating the anchor text that is used for the links and be able to test everything to see what works and what doesn’t. No other sort of linking building strategy is going to place you in the driver’s seat like this. Because you are in full control, you will be able to test and tweak things at will.
2. Instant Results.
Another reason you are going to want to consider using a PBN is that it is one of the only ways to generate instant results and authority with your linking strategy. PBN’s are very powerful because you are essentially leveraging the existing power and authority of an aged domain and trusted a website to boost the power of your backlinks. It can be very challenging to get the same kind of links through actual organic means and outreach.
3. No Wasted Time.
Unfortunately, outreach programs and relationship building is the standard way to go about link building and it can be very tedious and time-consuming. Instead of having to do this and essentially waste time, you are going to be able to spend your time much more wisely doing other result producing activities instead. The amount of time that you would normally spend on doing standard outreach is significant so this is a very important benefit of using a PBN.
4. Save Money.
While you might assume that a PBN is going to cost you more money than it would return on the entire investment, you would be wrong. A PBN is something that can be invaluable because not only will it speed up the rate at which you are able to rank, but it can be used for multiple sites at a time. Along with this, it can end up saving you a lot of time that you would have to spend doing organic outreach strategies and programs that can take a lot of time and energy. The time saved alone is likely to save you a lot of money.
Overall, there are plenty of different reasons you are going to want to at least consider investing time, energy, and money into building out your own PBN or using an existing one. Not only does it place you in full control over your website’s link building strategy allowing you to be able to test and tweak things as you wish, but it can end up saving you a lot of time not having to go through the typical organic outreach phases which can save you a lot of money in the process. It is a great idea to consider if you are looking for faster and more immediate results for ranking one of your websites. While it does come with it’s own risk factors, it is likely a decision that would pay off in the long run.
